Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/y54jofvexm
Ragusa and Vlad III Draculia's Last Wallachian Rule
Ioan-Aurel Pop
; Romanian Academy, Bucarest, Romania
Alexandru Simon
; Centre of Transylvanian Studies, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Abstract
Roughly a week before Ali Mihaloğlu, the bey of Vidin and Smederevo, raided Oradea (7-8 February 1474), the connecting area between Hungary proper and the Voivodate of Transylvania, the Commune of Dubrovnik/Ragusa, at that time vassal to both Ottoman sultan Mehmed II and to Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, informed Venetian Doge Nicolò Marcello, ruler of her Adriatic neighbour, about the most recent developments at the Porte, as well as at both the Porte's Asian and European borders (31 January 1474). From the latest news on Usun Hassan, still viewed by some as Christendom's main anti-Ottoman hope (in spite of the crippling losses he had suffered in August 1473), the commune moved on – in her message to Venice (earlier Usun’s main supporter) – to the combats in Vlachia Maior (Wallachia proper), recently invaded by Stephen III the Great of Moldavia (8-30 November 1473). The information had likewise been provided by the Ragusan envoys to the Porte, who had just returned to the Adriatic, after departing from Constantinople (Istanbul) on 28 December 1473. With Venice waging an increasingly desperate war against Mehmed (for ten years and counting), the task of conveying Ottoman inside information was very delicate for tribute paying Dubrovnik. The Ragusan message is the only extant known source to state that Stephen III the Great had won Wallachia from Radu III the Handsome for the benefit of Vlad III the Impaller. The rest of the known sources (however chronicles, not documents) claim that Stephen enthroned Basarab III Laiotă as ruler of Wallachia (Laiotă was his Wallachian ruler of choice until autumn 1474). Ragusa’s Venetian message bluntly contradicts the known contemporary data on Stephen III’s intervention in Wallachia in November 1473 and on the subsequent events, data preserved only in the chronicles of Stephen III (chiefly in the Moldavian-German Chronicle intended for Habsburg subjects, around 1499-1500) and in the writings of Jan Długosz (notoriously hostile towards the Hunyadi).
Keywords
Vlad III of Wallachia (Dracula); Usun Hassan; Mehmed II; Matthias Corvinus; Stephen III of Moldavia; Dubrovnik/Ragusa; Venice; Vlachia Maior
Hrčak ID:
302152
URI
Publication date:
17.5.2023.
Visits: 835 *